Member

I say to the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, that there is a paradox of regulation at play here. In a helpful briefing, the CIPD has made an international analysis of the interplay between employment regulation and unemployment rate and dismissals. While the UK is perceived to have lower levels of employment protection than some of our European counterparts, employment in the UK is greater, unemployment is lower and the rate of dismissal is at the lower end of all international comparisons, second only to Japan. Counterintuitively—and this is the key point—the evidence shows that the easier it is to let someone go, the more people are taken on. That is how the world works. The threat of tribunals resulting from routine dismissal from day one will make employers more risk-averse in hiring. The solution is simple, and it is in Amendment 108: to make sure that the additional protections against unfair dismissal come with nine months of employment, rather than on day one.